A FORWARDED Post FYI. "Oh, my countrymen! What will our children say, when they read the history of these times? Should they find we tamely gave away without one noble struggle, the most invaluable of earthly blessings? As they drag the galling chain, will they not execrate us? If we have any respect for things sacred; any regard to the dearest treasures on earth; if we have one tender sentiment for posterity; if we would not be despised by the whole world - let us in the most open, solemn manner, and with determined fortitude, swear we will die, if we cannot live free men!" Josiah Quincy, Jr., 1788 published in the Boston Gazette Bard Pro Libertate - For Freedom BUCHANAN-Reform http://gopatgo2000.com/default.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "William Shannon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 4:44 PM Subject: Queer Catholic Published Wednesday, July 12, 2000, in the Miami Herald Priest arrested on sex charge Catholic official runs Jubilee 2000 BY ELAINE DE VALLE [EMAIL PROTECTED] A Catholic priest who served as president of St. Thomas University from 1979 to 1988 has been arrested in a Miami Police prostitution sting. The Rev. Patrick H. O'Neill, executive director of the Archdiocese of Miami's Jubilee 2000 program, was charged with offering to commit prostitution last week after a short conversation with an officer from his car at Biscayne Boulevard and 19th Street. O'Neill's lawyer, William Dean, issued a statement about the misdemeanor arrest: ``Father O'Neill is confident that once all of the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident are fully revealed, his name will be cleared and he will return to serving the community and continue on with his life's work.'' Miami Police said Officer Albert Guerra, 27, was working a plainclothes sting operation Wednesday, July 5, when O'Neill, 60, allegedly drove up about 11:10 a.m. and lowered the passenger side window of his burgundy Mercedes 300E sedan. In the arrest affidavit, Guerra said O'Neill began a conversation. ``He then offered me $100 to hold my penis and be affectionate with me until he ejaculated. I then gave the take-down signal [and the] defendant was arrested,'' the officer wrote. Miami Police spokesman Jorge Pino said the priest, who lives at 8901 Dickens Ave. in Surfside, was not booked. He was released after he signed a form promising to appear in court. O'Neill did not return two phone calls made to his home, but archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said he was out of town on a previously scheduled trip. ``He's a man that travels a lot, and July is the vacation month for a lot of our priests,'' Ross Agosta said. ``The archdiocese is aware that Father Patrick O'Neill was arrested on a misdemeanor charge. Father O'Neill has cooperated with authorities, and we are optimistic there will be a quick and just resolution to this incident.'' Ross Agosta also said the archdiocese does not have a policy for priests who have been criminally charged. ``We don't suspend the priest,'' she said. ``We may ask him to take some time off.'' The high-ranking cleric heads the Archdiocese of Miami's campaign to bring more of South Florida's 1.3 million Catholics ``home'' to the church. About 800,000 are registered at the 111 churches in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties. Jubilee is the archdiocese's most-ambitious evangelization effort since Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit. Before taking on the Jubilee campaign, O'Neill had been in the limelight before. O'Neill helped organize the pilgrimage of South Florida Catholics for the Pope's visit to Cuba in 1998. In 1993 and 1994 he oversaw a committee of about 20 priests, nuns and lay people forming a plan to help the Catholic Church of Cuba. He has also served as president of the South Florida Center for Theological Studies since 1994, president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (now called the National Conference for Community and Justice), and president of the West Palm Beach-based New Hope Charities Foundation, of which he is also listed as a founder. O'Neill delivered a sermon at the memorial service for Gianni Versace, a gay fashion designer murdered on the steps of his South Beach home in 1997. After singing from the Madonna song You Must Love Me, the priest talked about Versace as a family man. ``He changed everything around him,'' said O'Neill, who pointed out the joy in Versace's life and work as his hallmark despite the Catholic Church's stance against homosexuality. The priest is the latest high-profile person to be caught in a prostitution sting on Biscayne Boulevard in recent undercover operations. Norman Lindeblad, executive director of Miami-Dade Schools' Office of Professional Standards, was reassigned after he was charged June 24 with soliciting a prostitute. The same night, Miami Police Maj. Juan García -- a onetime finalist for police chief who used to supervise prostitution stings -- was stopped after having a conversation with an undercover officer at Biscayne and 79th Street. Those cases are pending. In February 1999, Atlanta Falcons football star Eugene Robinson was arrested -- also on a Saturday night -- after he propositioned a decoy officer at Biscayne and Northeast 22nd Street. Robinson reached a deal to avoid jail by completing a diversion program. A month later, Miami-Dade County Judge Reginald A. Richardson was acquitted of soliciting an undercover Miami Police officer for prostitution in February 1998, near Biscayne and 31st Street. Herald researcher Elisabeth Donovan contributed to this report. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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